Christ in You

Oh, how sweet the love of God Oh, how deep His graces flow Oh, how great a debt He paid I was dead and gone, now forevermore The length that seems the love of God Even though I wander and roam But Jesus loves me right where I stand From mountain high to valiant home Standing here amazed at the goodness of the Lord Astonished that He even called my name Unworthy and made worthy I could have never found my way If not for the amazing love of God Like an ocean, His love of God Deep and wide, without end Even when the darkness calls me The love of God comes rushing in Even when the darkness calls me The love of God comes rushing in Standing here amazed at the goodness of the Lord Astonished that He even called my name Unworthy and made worthy I could have never found my way If not for the amazing love of God Standing here amazed at the goodness of the Lord Astonished that He even called my name Unworthy and made worthy I could have never found my way If not for the amazing love of God If not for the amazing love of God If not for the amazing love of God If not for the amazing love of God If not for the amazing love of God It's amazing, it's unending The love of God, the love of God It's amazing, it's unending The love of God, the love of God It's amazing, it's unending The love of God is here this morning The love of God It's amazing, it's unending The love of God The love of God The love of God The love of God The love of God, the love of God, the love of God, the love of God, Redeemer, Redeemer The love of God, the love of God, my Savior, my Savior, the love of God, the love of God Jesus, Jesus, the love of God, the love of God Jesus, Jesus, the love of God, the love of God Jesus, Jesus, the love of God, the love of God Jesus, Jesus, the love of God, the love of God The search is over, look no further The love of God is here to death, the love of God The search is over, look no further

The love of God, the love of God The search is over, look no further The love of God, the love of God The search is over, look no further Preaching is a supernatural act done on earth. It cannot be done without the power of the Holy Spirit. It takes a man's mouth, but it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to enliven the words that God has chosen. I'm asking you to take one of your hands, point it in this direction, and you ask God to help me preach His Word today. I thank you now, Lord, for the help that comes from heaven and for the power that resides within, and I pray that every one of us today will be enlightened to the truths of Almighty God. In Christ Jesus we pray, amen. Smile at somebody on the way down. Anybody with any degree of Bible familiarity has come across the word mystery. Mysteries. We see them throughout the New Testament. Mysteries. Has come across the word mystery. Mysteries. We see them throughout the New Testament. A mystery is something that God had hidden in His heart, in His mind, had never been revealed until He revealed it to prophets and believers. Secrets. God has secrets. God still has secrets that He has told no one anything about, but He will throughout the ages.

But in our Bible, I have found eleven references to a mystery, or mysteries, and again, it's secrets that God has revealed. One of those references is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when it talks about the mystery of iniquity. Where did sin come from? It originated in the heart of Lucifer, and it has walked its path down through the ages and will culminate when the man of sin, or the antichrist, sits on a throne in Jerusalem and declares himself to be God. That's a secret God has given us. The world doesn't get it. In Romans chapter 11, there is a secret called the blindness of Israel. God has blinded the eyes of Israel for a time until the number of Gentiles that will be saved comes to fruit. And in Ephesians 1, we have the mystery of God's will, which is that at the right time, when Jesus Christ himself sits on a throne in Jerusalem, all things will be gathered unto him, and then one day in the new heaven and the new earth, Jesus Christ will be all in all. Everything will point to him. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus referred to the mystery of the kingdom of God, that God has a kingdom on earth and sometimes it's hard to discern, and God lets tares, briars, false prophets and false teachers work in his kingdom. And then in Ephesians chapter 3, there's the mystery of the church, that God will allow Gentiles to be co-heirs with Israel. Ephesians chapter 5, there's the mystery or the secret of marriage, where Paul explains the love of a man and a woman and how they submit and love and take care of one another. And he said, this is a mystery, but I'm showing you Christ and the church. He's revealing it. First Timothy chapter 3 talks about the mystery of godliness, that godly people and even God himself in Christ would come and dwell amongst the darkness and depravity of a fallen world. And then, as you well know, in Revelation 17, there's the mystery of Babylon.

That what is the mystery of Babylon? What is the secret God is revealing to us that the world doesn't get? That since Adam fell in the garden, powers unseen, devilish, demonic, devastating, destructive powers have controlled this world through religion and commerce. Then in 1 Corinthians 15, there's the mystery, the secret that's been revealed about the resurrection and the rapture of the church. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. What a mystery, what a secret, and we know about it. And that's why we get up every morning and say, come Lord Jesus, come, let this be the day. The mystery I want to preach about this morning is in Colossians chapter 1 verses 26 and 27. I want to read it to you. You can see it on the screen. The mystery, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, did you get that? But now has been revealed to his saints, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this world. mystery among the Gentiles which is, that's where we need a drum roll, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The Old Testament believers did not know this, they did not see this. The New Testament apostles did not see this. They still believed that the kingdom was going to be a Jewish kingdom. They still thought that the temple and all of the accoutrements of Judaism would be intact and that they would just serve God. God would give them a land in Israel and they would be blessed and safe. They had no idea until Jesus gave the secret to Paul that God was not going to stay in heaven and God would not be distant from his people, hallelujah, but that God would come and live inside of his people, not just in mass, not just a group, not just the church. He's not only in the middle of the church, he's in my heart. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus said one

time, he that loves my father and obeys his word, I and my father will come and dwell with him and make our abode in them. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit to the apostles, he's been with you but he shall be in you. So this new secret, this unveiling of this wonderful thought from heaven, from God's heart, is that God is not just out here, he doesn't just surround us, he has chosen to live inside of us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I'll talk about it more in a few moments but I'm sure somebody's sitting here saying, I don't feel much like God is living inside of me. I don't feel much like the power of Christ is at work inside of me. We'll get to that in a moment. I got some steps I want to take first. I want you to picture a triangle and I want you to see how this thing works. The triangle is brought us at the base and then as you move up it comes to a focal point and an apex and that's what this Bible teaches us. The Old Testament, the truth of God in the Old Covenant is that broad base. From that we learn that God created man in the world and man sinned and fell and man got even more wicked and God called out a man named Abraham and Abraham was and his offspring were supposed to be beautiful examples of the people of God but they blew it and they rebelled against God and now we're moving up and we come to the Gospels, come to the announcement of John the Baptist that a Messiah, a Redeemer has is coming and Jesus comes into the world and we read about his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his designation of the church, his creation of the church and all of a sudden you get to the very point, the top and it's Jesus. Everything in this Bible is about Jesus. Everything moves upward towards him and comes closer together in Jesus. That's why sometime in the past I preached to you about Christ being the fulfillment of every requirement of God. And I said to you Christ is the end of the law. Paul said Christ is the fulfillment of the law. The law being those requirements that God gave to Israel through Moses knowing that they could not keep them. He gave them to show them that there is no possible human way that you can save yourself or even bless yourself. You are incapable of doing anything to impress God at all.

No amount of giving, fasting, working, visiting or anything else impresses the Almighty at all. There's only one thing, one person that makes God the Father sit on the edge of His throne and that is His beautiful Son, Jesus Christ. And Paul said, all of those requirements and all of those laws are now done away. It's over because Jesus kept them. Jesus fulfilled them. I don't have to anymore, don't even have to try to anymore. All I have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ without doing anything except calling on His name, believing in Him and following Him every day of my life. Christ is the end of the law. Christ is the end of the Sabbath. Paul writes and says, don't you let anybody try to pull you back into Judaism. You've been saved by the blood of Jesus. You are redeemed by faith in Christ. So don't let these people come to you and say, sure, but you still gotta keep the Sabbath. Paul said, there is no more Sabbath. It's done away. Christ is the Sabbath. God gave the Sabbath so people would rest. But Jesus came and He becomes our rest. We rest from our labors. We rest from our frustrations. We rest from our efforts to do anything righteous

and we rely on the rest that Jesus gives us. That's why we worship on the first day of the week. We don't have to. We can start worshiping on Tuesday afternoon if you want to. We do it because Jesus walked out of the tomb on the first day of the week, Sunday. And the apostles all worshiped on the first day of the week. It was because they believed Christ's resurrection was meaningful. Something about that day, the first day, really mattered to the apostles. So for all of you who are still bound up, caught up in all the, what should I do about the Sabbath? I'll tell you, the Sabbath is not a day. It's a person. Let me go on. Christ is the end of the temple. There's no temple in Jerusalem. We don't build temples now. The temple was a place God designated to teach people that you have to go and meet God there. But there is no temple except that the temple today walks around. Paul said, don't you realize you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ? You are the dwelling place of God Almighty. And not just in mass, but personally. That's what it means. Christ is in you. God was in his temple.

God is in his temple now in glory. But Christ is in his temple on this earth. Praise his name forever. We are the temple. Christ is the end of the priesthood. Remember that verse in Matthew when the earthquake took place after Jesus died and the Bible says the great high priest rent his clothing? That was a sign that the priesthood was over. When God tore something, it was over. He ripped that curtain in the temple, it's over. There's no more barrier between God and man. When the priest ripped his garment, it was God saying, there's no more man-made priesthood. You don't have to go to a man and confess. You don't have to go to a man and let him pray for you. You don't have to have a middle man to get to heaven. You are the child of God. You are a priest. We are the priesthood. We've been made kings and priests unto God and his Father. I don't have to get an appointment. I don't have to sit in a booth somewhere and talk to somebody I can't see. I can come boldly to the throne of grace and let God know all about it in my life. Christ is the end of all the feasts and festivals. I don't know what's wrong with some people, and especially the charismatics. They've got to have... and talits, prayer cloths, and they do all this Jewish stuff.

They think there's something really special about being Jewish. There's nothing special about being Jewish. It's a culture just like all the other cultures. So when you start reverting to Jewish culture, thinking somehow you're closer to God, you've missed it a thousand miles because Judaism is dead. And I want you to hear me. The feasts and festivals don't mean anything. We don't keep them. They had seven. What did I say? Passover, unleavened bread, first fruits, Pentecost, trumpets, atonement, tabernacles, those are all high holy days in Israel. But don't you understand, sir, that Jesus has already done all of that. He is my Passover. He is my sanctified life. He is my resurrection. He is my Holy Ghost baptism. He is my tabernacle. He is a dwelling place on this earth. He is my feast of trumpets. He's coming back for me one of these days. Jesus! There are no meat and drink sacrifices. Well, the sacrifices we have as the body of Christ is. Brethren, I beg you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice every day. You don't kill an animal. You don't shed its blood. You get up and say, here I am. I am yours. You are mine. But the living sacrifice offers sacrifices. Let us, therefore, offer unto him the sacrifice of praise, giving thanks unto him as the fruit of our lips,

and to do good and to share. God is well pleased with these sacrifices. All these narratives in the Bible, every story, every depiction of anything in the Bible is about Jesus. It points to Jesus. Those wonderful, heart-touching stories about Joseph. You know, if you just see Joseph in the Old Testament, he had a dysfunctional family, and his brothers resented him, and so they sold him into slavery. And, you know, he met the right people at the right time, and he got out, and he became a very whopping success. That's not what the Bible teaches. That story of Joseph is about how Jesus Christ was rejected by his brethren, the Jews, and through it all, God chastened him, trained him, and at the right moment, he became the ruler over the Gentiles. Or you can go to the story about David and Goliath. Who doesn't like that one? That's not just a story about a brash teenager who was good with a slingshot. It's a story about how our Lord Jesus Christ faced the greatest enemy in this world in sin and death, and he defeated it, and he cut its head off. And one day, he's going to sit on a throne. That's what that is about. All that beautiful writing in Ruth and in Esther, it's about Jesus. And so that's why, especially in the Hebrews, it says all of these narratives and illustrations

are shadows. They're giving you an outline, but Jesus becomes the substance of it. Those writers and those people didn't understand the fullness of it because they did not know the secret that God was going to send his Son into the world and become the Savior of those who would call on his name. So all of that Old Testament stuff is over, and all of these stories point to Jesus. and say, you don't have to wonder anymore, the secret is out. Christ in you. Christ is the substance of everything you've read, the fulfillment. Everything in the Old Testament, and I love to read it, I study it just like you do, but I rejoice in that it's done. That's what they had to do, it's not what I have to do because it's all fulfilled in Christ. Let me say this again, and I want to say it very kindly. Judaism is dead. It's a dead religion. Jesus is alive. Judaism was a man-made thing to try to get people to know God better, and man improved on it, and they added to it and took from it, and it became totally flesh, and could get no one to God, and it's dead now. And Judaism, even though God designed it, he never designed it to save people because no blood sacrifice can forgive sins, and no acts of religion can make you righteous. Judaism is dead.

In fact, all religions are dead, except the ones that proclaim, not only proclaim, but prove by their living and their worship that Jesus Christ alone is worthy of all of our praise, and only Jesus should get the energy of my life. And I know that there are all kinds of religions, and people say, you surely are ugly. You get brash. You braggart. You think you're the only way, yours is the only way. I do, because Jesus said, I am. Please don't do this to me. I'll lose it. I will absolutely split my jacket today. Jesus is the one that said, there is no other name. There is no other way. He's the only way. You can't get to God except through Jesus Christ, and if you are not enjoying Christ and getting to God, you're in a dead religion. Let me offer a little warning here to our very amped up, hyped up, charismatic people. How can I say this? I don't guess I really can. The gifts are not to be worshipped, the gifts of the Spirit. So what I'm saying is, these days people get worked up about prophecy, and visions, and dreams, and they will try to find a church where there's a prophet,

or people can lay hands on them and prophesy, or they want to go where a man's been to heaven, had a dream, he's telling them all about what he did in heaven. I don't believe any of it. Any of it. And they want to go to a place that's kind of spooky, and they want the supernatural. Again, dreams, visions, signs, wonders, miracles, and they follow all of these hirelings around to see if they can have some kind of experience like that. People are especially drawn to a prophetic place. Pastor Greg can affirm, we've had people leave this church and say, well, we love it here, love the preaching, it's just not enough. Just not enough. I need prophecy. I need the prophetic. I need somebody who's flowing in the prophetic. Now I want you to listen to me. I want everybody to look dead in my eyes and listen to me. Revelation 19 says, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. All of this stuff where you go and stand in line and somebody jabbers something over you and declares that you're going to get a new home or you're about to get a husband and you're going to get a raise and a better job. It's funny to me how these modern day prophets only prophesied good things.

They know they can fill up the pew. If they can prophesy good things, but I don't hear much Just say if the Lord you better straighten up or you're gonna bust hell wide open. I Never hear much of that today But I'm telling you and I want you to hear me I Want you to hear me What you're looking at what you're hearing right now is prophecy You know why it's prophecy because I'm telling you about Jesus I'm giving you a testimony about Jesus I'm not talking about your bankbook or that you're dead indebtedness I'm telling you that there is a Savior in heaven a son of God Who decided not to stay way up there, but decided to come down and live inside of you He'll be your strength. He is your victory. He'll give you guidance. He'll help you overcome He's everything you ever wanted. He's everything you'll ever need in all of your life So The Bible is not about gifts, do you believe in them pastor, you know, I do But nothing can supersede Jesus And while we're at it, you know The Scriptures have a lot to say about Jews and Israel But the Bible is not about Israel and it's not about Jews We have Jews here as Messianic Jews We might even have a couple of visiting Jews who don't know Christ don't accept Christ Here here's the deal God called a man named Abraham named Abraham and Said through you I'm gonna bless all the nations of the earth and Abraham had two sons his first son was Ishmael and The Bible calls Ishmael the son of the flesh and

Then he had Isaac and God called him the son of promise Because in Ishmael Abraham was helping God out you see but the son of promise Isaac Was the son of the spiritual line Even Arabs can claim Abraham as their father because they are descendants of Ishmael see and then those who are the descendants of Isaac we term Jews But they are not special They are sinners just like you and me There's not a Jew anywhere that'll say there's anything special about being Jewish I Don't understand why people want to be Jewish I Don't understand why you want to adopt culture and language when it's not who you are The thing about the ancestry of Abraham is that even the spiritual line even the line of promise has rebelled against God and has rejected Jesus Christ and they are the ones who actually Nailed him to a tree along with the Romans and they are still living in unbelief right now. Israel is an Agnostic nation is an atheistic nation. They do not believe in Jesus the Messiah But Israel is special in that God made a promise to Abraham and he said Through you the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. I'm going to have a people out of your loins and I have a land and you will live in that land and it's my gift to you and you'll be there forever But those people are not living for God Why do I support Israel because God told me to even in their unbelief I support and pray for Israel because in Israel is a little seed a remnant that's going to burst out one day during the Great Tribulation and These people are going to say I won't take the mark of the beast. I will not follow the man of sin

I believe that there's a God in heaven. God's going to open their eyes They're going to see that the Jesus their forefathers Rejected is actually their Messiah and they're going to be willing to lay their lives down and God's gonna 12,000 of them out of 12 tribes, 144,000 spirit-filled, on fire, evangelists who will preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. That's why we pray for Israel because there's a precious little seed that God is preserving and these people will inherit the land and they will be the Israel of God. That's why Paul said, so all Israel shall be saved. He didn't say every Jew, he said all Israel. Then what does that mean? All Israel, true Israel, bonafide Jews who believe in Jesus are going to be saved. They're going to inherit the land. Oh, hallelujah. Let me read something to you here. I get so excited I scare myself sometimes. In Romans chapter 2 verse 28, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God. So you see, there are lots of Jews, but there are very few spiritual Jews. Those Jews who are here today that believe in Jesus, you're not a Jew. You're the seed of Abraham just like I am. I almost got happy right there because I am of the seed of Abraham. I walk by faith and not by sight. Hallelujah. Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. That's been most of my life, going out not knowing where I was going. But I'm looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God that makes me a son of Abraham and a son of God. Oh man, that's some good preaching up in here.

Bible says the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Did you ever read that? The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. If God has given you a gift, he will never take it back. If God has laid his hand on you, he won't take it off. That's what I just read. How are you going to argue with me or with that? The gifts of God are irrevocable. He won't change his mind. He will not repent that he did it. So here we sit today, faithless at times, scared at times, empty at times, but always full of Christ because Christ is in us, the hope of glory. Think about what I'm telling you here. Almighty God, the incarnate son of God, the one who spoke the universe into existence in me, in you. So now you're probably saying, I tell you, I don't feel like it. This doesn't feel too powerful at all. Okay. So I was sitting at the island the other day. No, Sandra and I don't have an island. It's the one in the house. I was going to say the bar. That would have been a whole lot worse. What do you call it? Island? So I'm sitting at the island eating, and she's on the phone. And I hear her say, oh my word, oh, oh no, oh, I'm so sorry, oh. Then she said, well, I've sure been praying about it, but it doesn't look like my prayers are doing much good. That's what she said.

And you know why you're laughing? Because you thought the same thing. It doesn't look like my prayers are doing much good. Now, what I didn't mention this morning, 24 hours later, she comes to me. I'm sitting in the sunroom studying. She said, I need to read this to you. And it's from the same person, and this time it's a text. And it said, Wow, Mom, you won't believe what happened overnight. Everything was fixed. Wait, wait, wait. You don't know what I'm going to say yet. So an impossible situation apparently could not be fixed, especially in 24 hours. But I'm talking about God. So I want to take you quickly to one of the strangest passages in the Old Testament, 2 Kings chapter 6, and I'm going to highlight things. So Israel in Samaria is being besieged by Syria. Syria is laying siege to Israel. What does that mean? They surround the city. They don't let anybody in or out. They don't let any food in or out. They don't have any water coming in and out. Their plan is to starve them to death. Are you with me? So the king is walking up and down the wall of the city, and he's moaning and groaning, and I'm highlighting stuff. He runs into Elisha the prophet. Elisha said, What's the problem?

The king said, Are you kidding me? Look. The Bible says that a donkey's head, I'm making up these numbers, a donkey's head was selling for $100 so people could boil it and eat it. The Bible says that people were buying and selling dove dung for $20 an ounce. That's how hungry they were. That's how serious it was. And when the king told Elisha that, Elisha said, All right. About this time tomorrow, you're going to have more than you know what to do with. In 24 hours, God's going to turn this thing around. And somebody in the background said, You must be crazy. Even if God opened up every window in heaven and poured out everything he had, this could not be fixed. And Elisha said, All right. You'll see it, but you won't get to enjoy it. Now let's move over to the wilderness. They are surrounded by the Syrians, and there are four lepers sitting there looking at each other because they're outcasts. And one said to the other, What are we doing here? If we stay here, we're going to die. We might as well just go up to the Syrians' camp and take our chance. If they kill us, they kill us. Either way, we die. But let's just go up and ask if they'll let us come in and eat. They get up to the Syrians' camp.

There's not a soul there. But the horses are still tied up. The donkeys are still tied up. There's food in the tents. All the tents are open. Everything's full. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers have just taken up and run for their lives, leaving everything behind. What happened? The Bible says God, if I come down there, I'll make a fool of myself. The Bible says God made the Syrians to hear things that weren't there. God made Israel's enemies hear horses and the sound of a great army and the clattering of many chariots, and they thought, They're going to kill us. And they dropped everything, and they ran for their lives, and they left everything they had behind. And these four lepers were going in from one tent to the other, just stuffing themselves. They were putting gold down in their pockets, and they were putting garments over their bags and said, I think I'll take that donkey. And one of them said, This is not right. This is a good day. We ought to go tell the king that we've been blessed and that there's no enemy to fight. And he went and told the king, and the king sent some emissaries down there,

and they came back and said, They told the truth. Everything's down there, and there's not one single soldier. And when the king made the announcement, the people stampeded, and they came back. Listen to me. In 24 hours, their houses were full. Their cabinets with food was running over. They couldn't even sell stuff because they had more than they ever imagined they could have in 24 hours. I don't know that your story will be exactly like that, but I know this. There is a God in heaven and this God, wait, who hears his son inside of me, praying for me, says, I think I'll just do a number on his enemy. God can make your enemy run. God can confuse your enemy. God can make your enemy leave it behind. And God can bless you in 24 hours like you've never been blessed in all of your life. But that's not a promise. That's an illustration in scripture. It could happen that way. It took Joseph 18 years for God to turn his around. It took Daniel a night in a den with a lion. It took the three Hebrews a day, half a day in a burning furnace. It took Peter, chained between two soldiers, a long night of misery. Paul and Silas at midnight began to sing. I don't know when God will do it. I don't know how long it takes.

I know sometimes you look at it and say, it just looks bad right now. Don't you know it looked bad that day when Jesus was hanging on a cross and there his mother stood watching him bleed to death and his disciples were afraid and his friends were crying? If you were to walk up and say, what's it look like right now? It doesn't look too good. It looks impossible. This is an impossible situation. But God had a plan and God knows how to do it. In just 72 hours, the same man that hung on a cross and bled to death walked out of a tomb in robes of righteousness with death, hell, and the grave in the power of his hand. I don't know how long it will take, but I believe with all of my heart that if you will trust in the Lord with all your heart, if you'll let God be God, if you'll let God do it in his timing, the Lord will show you stuff you've never seen in all your life. Hallelujah to God. Stand with me. Stand with me. Don't ever forget what Jesus said. Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. How can that be? Well, Christ is in you. That's your hope of glory. Every time the Spirit prays through you, the Father does this. Every time that Jesus inside of you prays,

because that's what he does, he's an intercessor, the Father bends low. So I don't know how many times you've prayed about this and don't really know how big and bad it is, but God is bigger. Can I use my, and badder than any enemy you will ever face in your entire life. Christ in you. The hope of glory. My prayer is that when you walk out of here today, you will walk out expecting God to do something. And you don't really care, just as long as your will is done, Lord, may your will be done. That's all I care about. And before I dismiss you, I want to say to anybody here or there, Jesus Christ died for your sins. There is not a sin he cannot forgive. There is not a transgression that is not forgiven. not covered by the blood. Nobody is so wicked that you will be rejected. Jesus said, I will by no means reject anybody that comes to me. All you got to do is call on the name of the Lord. If you want to do that today, we'll be here while you do it. It's got to be you and God, but we'll stand right here and just say, praise God, another soul in the kingdom. So I don't know what, what are you playing there? Can somebody sing it? Oh, you sing. Yes. I'd rather have Jesus than riches of gold.

Sing, church. Singing Jesus. Singing Jesus. Singing Jesus. Singing Jesus. Jesus. I'd rather have Jesus than anything in this world of yours today. May the Lord, no, I started to say, may the Lord bless you. He has blessed you. He has lifted up his countenance on you. He has smiled upon you. He gave you the greatest gift of all, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And for that, the church shouted, praise the Lord. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer, amen. We pray that today as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's Jail and Prison Correspondence course through the mail by writing to Central Church, Jail and Prison Ministries Discipleship Center, 5143 Sardis Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28270. Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching.